Holiday Guide: How to get that holiday glow

This festive season, beauty is all about easy glamour.

Holiday makeup tutorial by Beauty Mark makeup artist Laura Murray.

’Tis the season for a beautiful updo, a bold lip and a little bit of sparkle. Yes, the holidays are upon us, and that means it’s time to add some glamour to your beauty routine.

Luckily, it’s never been easier to create a fabulously festive look with a minimum of fuss. To learn how, we checked in with Laura Murray, makeup artist at Beauty Mark in Yaletown (www.beautymark.ca), who created a sleek but sexy look that works for a variety of skin tones, ages and social events.

Here’s how she got this season’s best makeup look in 10 easy steps.

1. Skin

Start prepping the night before the event by applying a hydrating masque to your face. It will create a nice, natural luminosity, says Murray, making pores appear smaller, smoothing out skin tone and providing an all-over glow.

2. Nails

A festive manicure will put holiday sparkle at your fingertips without the risk of looking garish. What’s especially fashionable right now are dark and unconventional hues like green, blue or metallic. And, says Murray, “The trend is to have one highlight nail.” Our model, Prab, opts for a dark green lacquer with one nail on each hand painted in silver.

3. Hair

When it comes to hair, it’s all about tousled, sexy glamour — think messy updos, lazy curls and easy accessories. On Prab, Murray scoops hair into a high ponytail, then creates a super-casual updo by gathering it in a rhinestone necklace, pinning it loosely in place and setting it with a quick spritz of hairspray. “It doesn’t have to be super-slicked back,” Murray says. “Not too perfect.”

4. Foundation

Unless you plan to spend time under high-definition cameras, your foundation should just even out your complexion, not cover everything in a layer of beige. Think “smooth glow,” not “matte mask.” “I would choose an illuminating foundation,” says Murray. “You want more of a dewy complexion. It’s even more important with older skin. The more matte you go, the more it will settle in the fine lines.”

5. Brows

Once the canvas has been prepped, it’s time to create a frame for all this holiday beauty by grooming the eyebrows. Prab’s brows are already well shaped, so Murray uses a little brow gel and a fine brush to tidy them up, then a pencil to fill them in.

6. Lashes

Next, she applies false eyelashes, one of the easiest ways to create definition and drama without looking overdone. Murray trims a set of lashes to fit Prab’s natural lash line, dots on some lash glue, then applies the lashes just above Prab’s own. And just like that, instant glamour.

7. Eyes

“If you’re doing a strong lip, you want to keep the eyes neutral,” says Murray. Since this season is all about the bold lip in deep, intense hues, that means avoiding competing colours on the eyelids. Instead, think definition and shimmer.

Murray brushes a soft gold shadow all over Prab’s eyelids, then sweeps a subtle highlighter under the browbone and in the corner of the lid to open the eye.

“This shiny gold colour is very simple and it works on many, many skin tones,” Murray says, noting that it is soft enough to work on older skin as well as younger. The key, she says, is to go for “glow” rather than “sparkle.”

She finishes Prab’s eye makeup by adding further definition with liquid back eyeliner and a touch of black mascara.

8. Cheeks

Murray brushes a soft, natural-looking pink blush on the apples of Prab’s cheeks, just enough to create a healthy glow. The key with blush is to avoid bright clown spots and stripey ’80s contouring; rouge should be applied so subtly it is barely noticeable at all.

9. Illumination

Indeed, more important than colour is illumination. Murray dabs an illuminator on the peaks of Prab’s cheeks, the tip of her nose and the bow of her lips. This is a subtle way to add brightness and “a nice glow” to skin of all colours, conditions and ages, without looking overdone.

10. Lips

Finally, the finishing touch and the holidays’ big impact look: the beautiful, bold lip. Murray starts by brushing a lip scrub over Prab’s lips to remove any dry flakes. “It’s essential because in winter, our lips are drier,” she says.

Then she applies a deep purple lipstick to Prab’s lips. “A lot of people recommend a lip liner, but I say you can go without,” Murray says. “The shade for the season is this nice plummy wine colour. It works on Prab’s skin tone as well as a porcelain complexion.”

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